In his first late night appearance, Dr. Anthony Fauci dropped by The Daily Show (now known as The Daily Social Distancing Show) Thursday night (March 26) to deliver some updates and news to host Trevor Noah about the escalating coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. The White House coronavirus task force member and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases didn’t hold back during his interview: Fauci described the virus as a “worst nightmare” and “insidious and treacherous.”

Like most of us, Noah wanted to know when the country can return back to a more normal way of living. President Trump expressed his desire to reopen the country by Easter (April 12) despite health experts warning the date chosen by the President could pose risks of increased infection. “We hear about this clock, 15 days, where things will be reassessed, when people can go back to work,” Noah said. “What is that clock supposed to be, and is there a certain amount of time that people can be away from each other where coronavirus goes away?”

“The virus is the clock, Trevor,” Fauci responded. “So people say arbitrarily two weeks we’re going to be OK. It depends on the kinetics of the outbreak.” The infectious diseases specialist explained that, in the U.S., “We’re almost like a lot of little countries,” and that “New York in itself can be considered a country.”

Noah also asked Fauci about the effectiveness of chloroquine, an experimental drug used to treat malaria that the president has called “a game changer” with “very encouraging results” in treating the virus.

“As we speak, there is no proven, safe and effective direct therapy for coronavirus disease,” Fauci told Noah. Because of the rapid spread of the virus and lack of a proven cure, Fauci cautioned that all Americans should exercise proper precaution, including young people. “If you think you’re completely invulnerable, you’re incorrect,” he said.

But he wasn’t all doom and gloom. Fauci did have some promising words for Daily Show viewers. “I feel really confident that if this virus acts like every other virus that we know, once you get inflected, get better, clear the virus, then you’ll have immunity that will protect you against reinfection,” he said.